Octopus

[h20hunter]

Anyone care to explain how the bucket/pot thing works?

I'm also intrigued.

They just crawl in. That's it.

[Stein]

They love to hide in cracks and crevices when not out hunting.  When diving, a good way to find them is a pile of shells/food debris outside the opening.  My guess is they find the bucket inviting and hide in there and you just pull them in.  They are nocturnal for the most part, hunting at night and sleeping in their hiding spot during the day.

[jackelope]

Anyone care to explain how the bucket/pot thing works?

I'm also intrigued.

They just crawl in. That's it.

I just realized this is done along with diving for them I guess.
So you're making hidey holes for them, then dive to them and grab them.
Correct?

[h20hunter]

Anyone care to explain how the bucket/pot thing works?

I'm also intrigued.

They just crawl in. That's it.

I just realized this is done along with diving for them I guess.
So you're making hidey holes for them, then dive to them and grab them.
Correct?

Most bucket traps sre set and pulled like pulling xlcrab or lobster pots.

You could easily grap a 10 pomder...kinda....but a big one would be rough!

[Rob]

The big ones are...  well... big.  Largest one I saw was off the Duwamish head near the fixed marker.  The suction cups were the diameter of coffee cups.  That would put it well over 150 pounds.

We have two kinds of Octos here.  the Giant Pacific Octos (AKA GPO) are the large ones.  The Red's are small - probably only a pound or two and grapefruit sized when full grown.

Always had a soft spot for GPO's.  Something about an animal that will come out and check you out, climb all over you and then try to swipe your dive light on the way back to it's cave is endearing!

[Jake Dogfish]

My 2 cents....do not harvest an octo at popular beach dive sites. Legal or not it's simply not cool.

Could make for some great YouTube content

All kidding aside, it actually made the news before, and is why there was a change in the harvest rules for Octopus.

Actually it was a Octopus caught by a diver at Alki In 2012, and put on the news that created all these protection areas.

[carpsniperg2]

Man they are big and strong. I would think grabbing ahold of any with any size would be a underwater rode. Could even lose your breathing gear in a tussle.

[Stein]

It's funny watching someone try to pry one off their face, 8 arms beats 2 arms.  Not so funny when you are the guy trying it.  They can do a number on your mask since they can suction the flat glass and pull on it pretty good.

I have no idea how you would wrangle one of them into a bag if they didn't want to be there.

[Rob]

There is a guy named Eric Morris who use to write Octopus Tales in NW Dive News - more or less the Pat McManus of the NW diving world.

Standup guy who use to (may still) make dry suits.  I bought a couple and they are amazing!

Anyway, Eric wrote a story about a free diving buddy of his who was tagging along while they were diving and spotted a large GPO on a cobble bottom.  He dove down to harvest it.  When he grabbed it, it grabbed him back - and hundreds of rocks!  Basically if his scuba buddies had not seen the situation it probably would have drowned him.

Found the story here:
https://products.kitsapsun.com/archive/2003/02-13/72140_an_octopus_s_garden.html

[Rob]

It's funny watching someone try to pry one off their face, 8 arms beats 2 arms.  Not so funny when you are the guy trying it.  They can do a number on your mask since they can suction the flat glass and pull on it pretty good.

I have no idea how you would wrangle one of them into a bag if they didn't want to be there.

Totally agree - they stick to everything, and are basically slimy jelly!

[luvmystang67]

The japanese use small terracotta pots and run lines of them.  Unsure if they use any bait or not.  I don't see why it wouldn't work here.  I've always wanted to try it, but your pot might need to be a little larger.

https://soranews24.com/2014/07/31/we-go-octopus-hunting-learn-how-to-turn-octopus-heads-inside-out/

[Alchase]

No bait needed, the octopus crawls in and becomes very protective of the pot. Won’t come out even after being pulled up.
And a huge 6” diameter octopus can fully climb into a pop can sized container. It is amazing to see a huge octopus slowly come out of a small container.

[Alchase]

Oki Poki (teriyaki octopus) is amazing! They also fry and smoke up well.

[Jpmiller]

I had a guy asking for scraps of 6" pipe to make octopus traps but as soon as he saw I was interested and started asking questions about how to trap them he said he didn't want the competition and left.